1. Field
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to an image carrier to carry an electrostatic latent image and a visible image, and an image forming apparatus having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus is an apparatus designed to form an image on a printing medium according to a signal, and includes a printer, a copy machine, a facsimile, and a multifunctional device which incorporates the functionalities of the printer, the copy machine, and the facsimile (which may be referred to as a multifunctional peripheral device or MFP).
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, as a type of the image forming apparatus, is provided with an image carrier, a light scanning unit and a developing unit. The light scanning unit scans a beam of light to the image carrier charged with a predetermined electric potential to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the image carrier, and the developing unit supplies developer to the image carrier, on which the electrostatic latent image is formed, forming a visible image.
In general, the colors of toner used for the image forming apparatus include yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C) and black (K). In order to attach the four colors of toner to the electrostatic latent image, four developing units are needed.
There are two variants of image forming schemes. The first is a single-pass scheme in which an image carrier is provided in each of the four developing units. The second is a multi-pass scheme in which an image carrier is shared among the four developing units.